1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to bags, portfolios, padfolios and other business accessories, and more particularly, to customized decorations applied to such items and the application of such decorations.
2. Background Information
It is often desirable to apply decorative printing to cases, bags, portfolios and other business accessories. These items, often crafted from natural or synthetic leather, may carry a predefined location for applying a decoration. In a common application, the decorative printing consists of a promotional logo (e.g. a company trademark or trade name) and/or the owners name or monogram. Where a decoration is applied in bulk to a line of business accessories by a vendor, the decoration may be manufactured ahead of time by applying the decoration to an appropriate patch or substrate. This decorative substrate is then subsequently bound to the item using adhesives or stitching. The substrate may be a patch formed from a soft plastic or rubber compound with a painted or molded color pattern on its outer surface.
However, where a separately formed substrate or patch is used, the business accessory must often undergo a final construction step to attach the decoration-bearing substrate its outer surface at the appropriate location. This takes time and necessitates that a ready inventory of both business and decorated substrates be kept on hand for final finishing. If a customer purchasing decorated business accessories wishes to change the decoration, or increase the size of the order beyond the number of decorated substrates in stock, then the order must be delayed until a new stock of decorated substrates is received from a manufacturer. Clearly, the use of pre-manufactured decorative patch or substrate may limit manufacturing speed and flexibility for vendors of business accessories and their responsiveness to changing customer wishes.